"More than Enough" a sermon preached by Rev. Hammett N. Evans ©2009.

“MORE THAN ENOUGH”

A sermon preached by

Rev. Hammett N. Evans

Fordyce First United Methodist Church

July 26, 2009

John 6:1-21[a] After these things, Jesus went to the other side of the lake of Galilee, of Tiberias. ² Now a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs he was doing over the sick. ³ But Jesus went up into the mountain, and sat there with his disciples. ⁴ Now, the Passover was near, the feast of the Jews. ⁵ Then, Jesus was lifting up his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming toward him. He says to Philip, “Where will we buy bread so they may eat?” ⁶ Now, he said this to test[b]him, for he had known what he was about to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, “Two-hundred denarii[c]worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for them each to get a little.” ⁸ One of his disciples (Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother) says to him, ⁹ “A little boy is here, who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Make the people sit[d]down. Now, there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat[e]down, about five thousand in number. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves and having given thanks, he gave to those sitting[f]down, likewise also from the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² As they were being filled, he says to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover[g]broken pieces so that nothing may perish.”[h] ¹³ Therefore, they gathered also twelve baskets of broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over[i]by those who had been eating. ¹⁴ Then the people, seeing the sign he made, said, “This is truly the prophet coming into the world!”

¹⁵ Therefore, Jesus, having realized that they were about to come and drag him away to make him a king, took off again into the mountain by himself. ¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake ¹⁷ and embarked in a boat, going to the other side of the lake into Capernaum. Darkness had already come, but Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ The lake was being stirred up by a great wind blowing. ¹⁹ So, having rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia,[j]they saw Jesus walking on the lake and getting near to the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰ But he says to them, “It is I;[k]don't be afraid.” ²¹ Therefore, they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat was on the land to which they were going.

One of the coolest things at camp happened at the talent show. There was this little boy, well, I would say “little boy.” He was a young man about to go into seventh grade. Neat kid. He comes up to me at lunch Tuesday and says, “Hammett, what do you do when you’re not at camp?” I said, “I’m a preacher.” He said, “That’s what I thought. I think God may want me to be a preacher too.” Little boy, already praying about God’s call on his life.

Then, he opens up his Bible. He says, “What’s your favorite scripture?” I say, “Well, I’m kind of partial to Ephesians 2:8-10.” He says, “That’s a good one.” I say, “I like Romans 5:1-10 too.” He says, “That’s better.” I say, “What do you think about Romans 8:28 to the end of that chapter?” He says, “I like it.” Then he says, “Right now, the Psalms are really speaking to me, like this one.” He opens his Bible up (yeah, he had his Bible at lunch), and flips right to Psalm 100. You know Psalm 100?

“Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth! ² Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. ³ Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. ⁵ For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. A psalm of David.”[l]

Then he shows me all the passages he has highlighted in his Bible. He turns to the concordance in the back. He says, “When I was on choir tour, on the bus, I looked up all the passages on the fruits of the Spirit. Not all of them, you know, just the ones in the concordance,” and he rattles them off: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[m]

It rained Tuesday. We had planned to do Color Wars that night. You saw some pictures where the kids had their faces painted. Each small group is named for a color, and in Color Wars, the small groups have a little competition. Anyway, because of the rain, we had to bump Color Wars back to Wednesday and move the talent show up to Tuesday.

This little boy I’ve been telling you about, he signs up for the talent show. He comes up to me at dinner and says, “Hey, Hammett, would it be possible for me to play your keyboard before the talent show? I’d like to get a feel for it.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s cool. Meet me about fifteen minutes before, and you can try it out.”

So, he comes up exactly fifteen minutes before, and asks me if he can play my keyboard. He looks over at it and says, “Do you have a seat? I need to sit.” I say, “Sure,” and I go get the piano bench out of the storage closet. I set it up, and he sits down. Now, my keyboard is set up for me, and I stand when I play. It comes up to his chin. That won’t work, but I remembered something my Granny used to do when I was little. I grabbed this big stack of youth game books and a hymnal and put it on the bench, like the old Sears catalogs Gran used to put in my chair. He sits on them, and says, “Ah, that’s better.” He hits a key or two and says, “That’s cool,” and he goes and sits down.

The talent show starts. Emily sings a song with her friend. Others come and do their thing. Then this little boy comes up. He walks up on stage, sits down on top of those books, and…I can’t even describe what it was like. I was expecting “Chopsticks” or “London Bridge is Falling Down.” This little boy tears into a classical piece, I think it was Bach, just full of sixteenth notes and arpeggios, his fingers are flying all over the keyboard, and there’s not one sheet of music in front of him. He didn’t hold back. He laid it all out. He flubbed a couple of times, but the kids yelled, “Keep going! Keep going!” When he finished, everybody jumped up and gave him a standing ovation. It was awesome!

Our Bible story from John is about a little boy who didn’t hold back. He gave it all, and Jesus made it awesome. Everybody was hungry. Everybody else was afraid that what they had wouldn’t be enough for themselves, but that little boy laid it all out. He gave everything he had to Jesus and trusted him with it. Jesus blessed it, and there was plenty to go around.

This meal reminds us that Jesus doesn’t hold anything back. Jesus gives and gives and gives of himself. He gives his life so that we might live faithfully and fruitfully today and in the life to come. Don’t be afraid to come. Don’t be afraid to give. When we give our all to Jesus, there is always more than enough.

Wednesday morning, that boy sits down at my table for breakfast. Man, Camp Tanako’s food was good this year. I usually come back having lost five pounds, but I got on the scale yesterday, and I gained two. I’m sitting there with my plate full.

The young man says, “Hey, Hammett,” and he pulls on his t-shirt. He says, “Has your church ever done this?” I look at his shirt, and it says, “www.30hourfamine.org.” I say, “No, tell me about it.” He says, “Our church does it. We go to church and hang out together, play games, watch movies, and learn about hunger. Did you know someone dies of hunger every three seconds?” I said, “No, I didn’t.” He said, “Yeah. So, we raise money for hungry people.” I said, “Do you fast?” He says, “No, it isn’t a fast. We just eat what most people in the world eat. We have little, snacky things, and some water.” He said, “You ought to try it sometime.”

I noticed something after that. I was filling up my plate, getting and eating more than I need. He didn’t. He just ate what he needed, and he would share the rest with the people at his table.

What if we did that? What if we gave our all? What if we lived on just what we needed? What if we shared what we have to bless others? How many people would be blessed? You know, there aren’t even 5,000 people living in Fordyce. That little boy is doing his part. Will we? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.